Devonshire January February 18
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The COUNTRYMAN<br />
CHRIS TAYLOR<br />
The COUNTRYMAN<br />
Chris lives with his wife, Brianne,<br />
in north Devon at the confluence<br />
of the Mole and Bray Rivers.<br />
Raised on a farm, with a degree in<br />
Agricultural Zoology, Chris moved<br />
into Farm Management and more<br />
recently into Estate Management<br />
and Consultancy. Over the past<br />
50 years his passions cover all<br />
aspects of the countryside, wildlife,<br />
conservation,agriculture and<br />
country pursuits.<br />
A bumper<br />
harvest of<br />
Pumpkins<br />
Photos copyright C. Taylor<br />
Baby, it's cold outside...<br />
Spring beckons<br />
The shortest day of this winter has<br />
gone and two months of winter<br />
remain, so far we in Devon have<br />
missed any disruptive snowy or<br />
frosty weather but we have had<br />
more than our share of rain. It is<br />
unusual for much snow before<br />
Christmas and the last time that<br />
occurred in North Devon was<br />
early December 2010. That year<br />
almost a foot of snow fell and the<br />
few ewe lambs I had struggled to<br />
move around and just trampled<br />
one small area of their field and<br />
that's where they stayed until the<br />
snow receded.<br />
I recall after Christmas of 1983<br />
or 1984 as being particularly<br />
difficult when trying to make a<br />
living farming. Plenty of snow<br />
and much worse penetrating<br />
cold, even the tractor diesel froze<br />
whilst driving along, this made<br />
life extremely hard. The small<br />
streams froze and we relied on<br />
these for water for the ewes. We<br />
had to resort to using a mattock<br />
( a cross between an axe and an<br />
adze ) to dig frozen swedes to feed<br />
hundreds of sheep. These swedes<br />
were their only water source. It<br />
was this or nothing, but the sheep<br />
scour badly, fed on frozen swedes.<br />
The farm I occasionally helped on<br />
had one running tap working in<br />
this cold period that lasted some<br />
6 weeks. Keeping yourself warm<br />
all day was also a challenge, as<br />
many layers of clothes as possible.<br />
My neighbouring farm, like many<br />
others just poured their milk away<br />
as no tankers could get to their<br />
farms but I do remember how<br />
all the community helped one<br />
another out to get by.<br />
Wildlife suffers in extreme winters<br />
and in those winters of the early<br />
1980 starving fieldfares and<br />
redwings would follow me and the<br />
sheep to the trough in expectation<br />
of any small morsel of food.<br />
So far this winter hundred of these<br />
birds have been feeding in the<br />
Suckling lambs - bottle and teat<br />
orchard on the many dropped<br />
apples and I even have many bags<br />
of apples stored just in case of<br />
worse to come. If you feed your<br />
garden birds leave any old apples<br />
and even the peelings out and see<br />
what comes along.<br />
There are good numbers of<br />
woodcock and snipe around<br />
this winter. Take a walk along<br />
any estuary or over any wet and<br />
rushy farmland and you are sure<br />
to frighten up the later. There<br />
are two types of snipe that occur<br />
in Devon and unless you are a<br />
10<br />
Countryside, History, Walks, the Arts, Events & all things Devon at: DEVONSHIRE magazine.co.uk